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Jim Smith, President and CEO of Thomson Reuters, was taken to a Toronto hospital yesterday after feeling unwell. Jim remains in the hospital, under observation. In his immediate absence, Stephane Bello, Executive Vice President and CFO of Thomson Reuters, will oversee Jim's responsibilities alongside his own, in line with the company's practice.

DA Davidson analyst Peter Heckmann says that yesterday's disclosure of advanced talks between Blackstone (BX) and Thomson Reuters (TRI) about the sale of the latter's Financial & Risk - F&R - operations is a negative for Factset (FDS). The analyst believes that most of the market share wins for Factset have come from Reuters over the past two decades, and Blackstone's ability to better focus investments in the financial data business may make competitive wins for difficult. Heckmann keeps his Neutral rating and $174 price target, adding "FactSet's shares will be challenged to outperform the peer group over the next year".

01/31/18

NATB

01/31/18DOWNGRADENATBSector Perform

Thomson Reuters downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at National Bank

01/31/18

MSCO

01/31/18NO CHANGETarget $40MSCOOverweight

Blackstone could be next disruptor, says Morgan Stanley

Following Blackstone's (BX) purchase of a 55% stake in Thomson Reuters' Financial and Risk business, Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys said Blackstone's deal signals the growing value in data and he sees opportunities for the asset manager to enhance its tool kit with big data and AI in order to bring transformational change to companies and industries. With nearly $100B in dry powder on which leverage can be applied, suggesting well over half trillion in spending power, Cyprys sees potential for Blackstone to act as a disruptor, he tells investors. The analyst keeps an Overweight rating and $40 price target on Blackstone shares.

Nuance has ceased development this month of the Swype feature for both iOS and Android, six years after it acquired the company behind the keyboard app for roughly $100M, the Verge reports, citing an emailed statement. Nuance said that it would discontinue support of the keyboard app and shift focus to other products, the report says. "The core technology behind Swype will continue to be utilized and improved upon across other Nuance offerings - and integrated into our broader AI-powered solutions - most notably in Android-based keyboard solutions for our automotive customers," the company said, according to the Verge. Reference Link

Baskin-Robbins, a Dunkin' Brands company, announced its continued expansion in the Toronto, Ontario market with the signing of four new store development agreements with three existing franchise groups. The first Baskin-Robbins shop under these new agreements is scheduled to open in 2019. Currently, there are more than 80 Baskin-Robbins locations throughout the greater Toronto area, and growing the brand there remains a top priority for Baskin-Robbins in 2018 and beyond.

Reports Q4 revenue $369.0M, consensus $340.56M. Q4 Adjusted EBITDA was $110.5M for the three months ended December 31, 2017, up 294% sequentially from $28.0M for the three months ended September 30, 2017 and up 691% from $14.0M for the three months ended December 31, 2016.

UP AFTER EARNINGS: Bandwidth (BAND), up 12%... Avis Budget (CAR), up 8.3%... Mindbody (MB), up 8%... SailPoint Technologies (SAIL), up 7.1%... Stamps.com (STMP), up 6.5%... Gulfport Energy (GPOR), up 5.8%... Synopsys (SNPS), up 4.4%... Parsley Energy (PE), up 3.5%... Pandora (P), up 2.5%. ALSO HIGHER: Mellanox Technologies (MLNX), up 10.4% after it updated its first quarter outlook and announced that CFO Jacob Shulman is stepping down. DOWN AFTER EARNINGS: Roku (ROKU), down 22%... Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI), down 12.5%... Stericycle (SRCL), down 9.2%... Castlight Health (CSLT), down 9.1%... Ultra Clean (UCTT), down 8.3%... Trinity Industries (TRN), down 5.6%... Sturm, Ruger (RGR), down 4.9%... CyrusOne (CONE), down 1.7%. ALSO LOWER: Advaxis (ADXS), down 13.2% after it announced a common stock offering... GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), down 5.5% after it said that its Phase 2a study of GWP42006 did not meet its primary endpoint... OneMain Holdings (OMF), down 2% after it announced an offering of 4.18M shares of common stock for holders.